The Upside: why 2020 wasn't all bad
Don't write off 2020. We all learned an awful lot
The heartening tales of Upside readers this year helped us look for the silver lining
A crocheted knitted rainbow of hope, on a park bench in Joppa, Edinburgh. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian | Mark Rice-Oxley |
‘Tis the season to stop writing emails to you lot and start winding down. So this will be the last Upside newsletter of 2020.
I must admit, there have been times this year when it’s been hard to remain optimistic, given everything that has happened. Times when it has seemed absurd to look for the silver lining, give how hard the rain has come down.
But we were blessed by the spirit and indefatigability of Upside readers, who never stopped chirping in our inbox with heartening tales of pandemic positivity: knitting, volunteering, walking, teaching, exercising, singing, gardening, dressing up, Zooming, reflecting, dancing, kidding around. You really are inspirational.
We’ve collated an article that showcases the resilience, compassion, kindness and general awesomeness of Upside readers through this terrible year. Enjoy.
But we didn’t stop there: we’ve also pulled together a collection of the most optimistic journalism from the Guardian of 2020 and poured it into our rather lovely app. It will be published next week, meaning that if you sign up for a free trial now you’ll get this very special Christmas bonus in your digital “stocking” on Christmas Eve. Now what could be more Upside than that?
The very best journalism from a bad year Photograph: The GuardianOtherwise, this week we found the Upside in
• the unexpected effect of Covid on homelessness. Four-minute read
• the low rates of coronavirus in south-east Asia. สามนาที
• the rise of exercise through 2020. 90-second sprint
• one Briton vaccinated every four seconds. By the time you’ve read this article, another 30 people in the UK will have had the jab
• how art is feeding hungry Americans this winter. Four-minute read
Lucky numbers
Some vaccine doses are going a little further than expected, with pharmacists finding they can squeeze six or even seven doses out of a vial supposed to hold only five doses, the New York Times reported. Meanwhile, New Zealand is to buy enough vaccine for its Pacific island neighbours.
Elsewhere, MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has given away $4bn (£2.9bn) over the past four months to help those affected by the pandemic.
Oh, and apparently, all the reindeer are female – except for Rudolf.
What we liked
Of course we loved the Constructive Institute’s 24-hour rolling conference on the future of journalism. The Upside took part in the opening session on why people avoid news and what can be done about it. You can see our conversation with the estimable Sir Martyn Lewis here.
Speaking of events, we are looking forward to a session called Bridging Our Divides next week, set up by the Progress Network, to examine how to start putting the US back together again. It’s on Monday at 8pm and is free: great for all our readers in the western hemisphere.
The end of the year is a natural time to take stock and assess 12 months of work. The Solutions Journalism Network are pioneers in the optimistic news field, and here they relate their standout solutions pieces of 2020.
And finally, a shout-out to our friends at Struggles from Below and their latest piece on how community land trusts may advance racial equality in cities.
What we heard
Sue Lloyd salutes a local who is brightening up her town.
Here in Minehead, Steven Heard, who is deaf, taught himself to weld during the first lockdown. Until then, he used to go on litter patrols in his buggy and is a well-known local figure.
Now he makes amusing brightly-painted figures out of recycled metal containers and puts them around town to cheer us all up. They’re so popular, he now gets orders from local businesses. It really brightens the place up!
In Edinburgh, Jane Whiting has been helping out with a community kitchen and food bank.
I began volunteering at Empty kitchens full hearts Edinburgh three months ago, as featured in the Observer recently. One unemployed chef has set up an operation delivering more than 800 meal packs a day across Edinburgh daily as well as 35 to 45 hot lunches served at the Leith Theatre and up to 100 evening meals. All out of waste food with around 300 volunteers.
Founder Lewis McLachlan of Leith’s Empty Kitchens, Full Hearts. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The GuardianDoug Schneider in Cincinnati, Ohio, applauds the idea of citizens assemblies.
I love the idea of citizens assemblies. At least in America, it seems that we need them to discuss the essential idea of how we protect democracy itself. Disavowing election results through legal processes and threats of violence is not the way for a democracy to go. It leads to citizens being afraid to say what they think.
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